Sometimes life here is hard. Patients die, young men are lost at sea, you sweat while sitting down expending as little energy as possible, bugs eat your legs and you wake up in the middle of the night scratching, and the list can continue (in decreasing order of importance...) Days like Saturday make up for a lot of that.
I got called at 6:30am from the hospital after a full night's sleep with no disturbance. The nursing assistant said there was a lady in labor who had just arrived and she was already pushing. I threw on scrubs and by the time I got to the hospital the baby was out and the nurse was handling everything well. I examined the baby, started to get things set up to do a minor repair on mom, when another lady in labor showed up. When she was brought to the second labor room (yey for the new room!) she sounded like her contractions were of the intense, final stage variety, and sure enough, when we examined her she was complete and also ready to push. Baby #2 came out with no trouble less than an hour after the first. The nurse and I worked busily for half an hour, and I was ready to leave the hospital, eat breakfast, change, and proceed with the next adventure.
The main planned activity for the day was a trip to a nearby waterfall, Rio Coco, with the Benedict family. Scott is an avid rock climber, rappeller, and trip leader who had scouted out the area the weekend before and was ready to take a small group canyoneering on the river.
I felt like Anne of Green Gables trying to come up with creative names for each of the lovely scenes that lay around each corner. A hanging bridge started the section of the river we were on, and the water split into 3 rivulets to fall into a lovely swimming hole with clear water. It then became a torrent again as it cascaded over a rock face where we had the first rappel. The moss covered rock ended in a deep pool that was surrounded by 30 foot cliff that we jumped off of. A waterslide in the rock led into the final pool that you had to jump into to cross back to the cliff once you had jumped the big cliff.
Rappel #1 was down a braided waterfall. It was pretty slick, so there were some entertaining spills (no injuries).
Rappel #2 was from the 30 foot cliff. We descended the normal way, and upside-down.
Ironically, I'm a little scared of heights.
It was like a professional tour- lunch, snacks, guides to set up equipment and take it down again, photographers, and great company. (If the Benedicts ever start a tour company, I will be highly recommending them to all my friends!) We even had topos (frozen bags of Kool-Aid) in the back of the pickup truck on the way home. The water was lovely and cool for swimming. Every moment of the day was delightful.
I got home, showered, changed, visited with a neighbor, and got ready for the second outing. I learned that afternoon that the 'coronation' of the queen of Balfate (nearby village) was happening tonight. It had been rescheduled from last week when the power had gone off around 7pm before the festivities had started. The queen this year is Andrea, who is one of the girls who lives at the Casa de Ninos foster home/orphanage associated with the hospital. Her accompanying princess was one of the other girls from the home. They live in a house for the teenage girls, and the other two girls from the house had rather glum looks on their faces, but Andrea and Reina were radiant. (The funny side note is that Reina in Spanish means queen, so we had Reina Andrea, and Princesa Reina.) They were decked out in ballgowns, with an addition I hadn't seen before. It was like a cross between wings and a crown. You'll have to look at the pictures to see what I mean. A whole group of us from the compound went to Balfate to watch the coronation. There was a coronation of a tiny queen as well. She was 8 years old, and her court looked like they were between 3 and 5 years old. A crowd of tiny princes and princesses with none of the airs of the U.S. beauty queens (i.e. Toddlers and Tiaras) was simply adorable. One of the girls was the daughter of a woman who works in our lab. It was really fun being out in the community and recognizing people, as well as getting to participate in a cultural event.
We ate mamones in the back of the pickup truck on the way home and I stared at the stars. Sometimes I feel pretty lucky to live here.
.JPG) |
| Baby #2 |
I got called at 6:30am from the hospital after a full night's sleep with no disturbance. The nursing assistant said there was a lady in labor who had just arrived and she was already pushing. I threw on scrubs and by the time I got to the hospital the baby was out and the nurse was handling everything well. I examined the baby, started to get things set up to do a minor repair on mom, when another lady in labor showed up. When she was brought to the second labor room (yey for the new room!) she sounded like her contractions were of the intense, final stage variety, and sure enough, when we examined her she was complete and also ready to push. Baby #2 came out with no trouble less than an hour after the first. The nurse and I worked busily for half an hour, and I was ready to leave the hospital, eat breakfast, change, and proceed with the next adventure.
.JPG) |
| Baby #1 |
The main planned activity for the day was a trip to a nearby waterfall, Rio Coco, with the Benedict family. Scott is an avid rock climber, rappeller, and trip leader who had scouted out the area the weekend before and was ready to take a small group canyoneering on the river.
I felt like Anne of Green Gables trying to come up with creative names for each of the lovely scenes that lay around each corner. A hanging bridge started the section of the river we were on, and the water split into 3 rivulets to fall into a lovely swimming hole with clear water. It then became a torrent again as it cascaded over a rock face where we had the first rappel. The moss covered rock ended in a deep pool that was surrounded by 30 foot cliff that we jumped off of. A waterslide in the rock led into the final pool that you had to jump into to cross back to the cliff once you had jumped the big cliff.
Rappel #1 was down a braided waterfall. It was pretty slick, so there were some entertaining spills (no injuries).
Rappel #2 was from the 30 foot cliff. We descended the normal way, and upside-down.
Ironically, I'm a little scared of heights.
It was like a professional tour- lunch, snacks, guides to set up equipment and take it down again, photographers, and great company. (If the Benedicts ever start a tour company, I will be highly recommending them to all my friends!) We even had topos (frozen bags of Kool-Aid) in the back of the pickup truck on the way home. The water was lovely and cool for swimming. Every moment of the day was delightful.
I got home, showered, changed, visited with a neighbor, and got ready for the second outing. I learned that afternoon that the 'coronation' of the queen of Balfate (nearby village) was happening tonight. It had been rescheduled from last week when the power had gone off around 7pm before the festivities had started. The queen this year is Andrea, who is one of the girls who lives at the Casa de Ninos foster home/orphanage associated with the hospital. Her accompanying princess was one of the other girls from the home. They live in a house for the teenage girls, and the other two girls from the house had rather glum looks on their faces, but Andrea and Reina were radiant. (The funny side note is that Reina in Spanish means queen, so we had Reina Andrea, and Princesa Reina.) They were decked out in ballgowns, with an addition I hadn't seen before. It was like a cross between wings and a crown. You'll have to look at the pictures to see what I mean. A whole group of us from the compound went to Balfate to watch the coronation. There was a coronation of a tiny queen as well. She was 8 years old, and her court looked like they were between 3 and 5 years old. A crowd of tiny princes and princesses with none of the airs of the U.S. beauty queens (i.e. Toddlers and Tiaras) was simply adorable. One of the girls was the daughter of a woman who works in our lab. It was really fun being out in the community and recognizing people, as well as getting to participate in a cultural event.
.JPG) |
| Sandy and her daughter |
.JPG) |
| Queen Andrea (it apparently takes 8 men to carry her train) |
We ate mamones in the back of the pickup truck on the way home and I stared at the stars. Sometimes I feel pretty lucky to live here.
